To say that some women of childbearing age got a bit concerned this week is probably an understatement.

Imagine what it must be like to be on a drug that’s supposed to prevent unplanned pregnancies and to learn that, gee, your package may have placebo
pills placed where the active ingredients belong. Anyone who has ever been a day or two late when they weren’t expecting to be a parent can tell you
the panic that sets in when you realize, “Ack! I might have a kid!”

Yet, more than one million packages of birth-control pills manufactured by Pfizer Inc. have been recalled “to be safe” because about 30 packages were
believed to have been packaged incorrectly. The recall affects Lo/Ovral-28 and Norgestrel in packages containing 21 active and seven inert pills,The Wall Street Journalreports. A list of batch numbers is available on this FDA release.

News sources worldwide are spreading the word, with some speculating the recall could spur huge lawsuits
against the pharmaceutical company.

We wondered what approach Pfizer was taking, so we visited its website. A link on the home page leads to a YouTube video with the company’s chief medical officer Freda Lewis-Hall:

If your organization dispenses these contraceptives, how are you sharing the information your patients need to know—whether your pharmacy or practice
dispensed the recalled lots, other contraceptive methods they should use if they had the batch numbers affected, if they should see their doctors?